James R. Holt, Ph.D., PE.Jholt@wsu.edu.ppt

James R. Holt, Ph.D., PE.Jholt@ Constraints Management Washington State University’sEngineering Management Program/ The Theory of Constraints: Physical Process Games The Assembly Game: When Things Must Come All Together! Another Issue in Operations that Surfaces: Assembly Both Manufacturing and Projects have Assembly; product Joins. There is a place were several things must all be available in order to proceed Typically, someone is late delays the product or project The normal solution is to have a MILESTONE with a significant penalty for being late. But…. The Milestone causes people to be overly cautious. They estimate longer for the Project tasks (to be sure and not be late) or start work much sooner than needed (before the details are clear). The result: The use of milestones creates a slower process that still often messes the milestones! The Assembly Game Let’s take six people and give each one two coins. Each person can flip one of his coins each day. To be prepared for the Assembly, each person needs to flip each coin until he has two heads. There are Six Days to get ready for the Assembly. H H H H H H H H H H H H Hum? What are the odds of getting a Head when flipping a fair coin? 50% on the first try! 75% within the first two tries. 87.5% within the first three tries. Hum? But I need to get two head in Six tries. How does that work? Let’s just try! The Assembly Game: How to play (First Round). Call out the Days, 1 through 6. Each of the six players flip one coin each day. When a coin results in a Head, shift to the next coin on the next day. When two head are flipped, that person has completed. At the end of Day 6, ask to see if all the players are ready for the Assembly. If all players are ready, record $100,000 profit If all players are not ready, the Assembly cannot take place. In this case, fire all the workers and close the plant! Discuss if this is a fair decision since most people were ready for the Assembly. Why close the plant f